I said "tomorrow" but of course I really *meant* MONDAY!!

Let's get down to brass tacks shall we?  Jack wanted James Bond and James Bond he got!  Dressed in his tuxedo t-shirt, he played the part of "009" for all it was worth.  All the secret agents in his posse converged on Chasers Laser Tag the morning of his birthday and had a time that can only be described as the stuff 9 year old boys' dreams are made of.

Take a look...

The nicest family owns this place, and goes to great lengths to make sure that every kid has a great time.  They even change their space around and repaint yearly because they have so many repeat customers they don't want it to get boring.  The theme for 2011 was Sharks, and for 2012 it will be Dragons!

We started out with video games for the secret agents.  Did I mention the place was SPOTLESS?  My three little spies BEG on a regular basis, to go to the arcade or to the dreaded Chuck E. Cheese.  Not a chance I say.  First they kill you by sucking your pocketbook dry...then they kill you with germ warfare.  But not Chasers - it was a mom's dream come true!  Clean and FREE - every game was included in the package price.

Then we moved on to "battle stations".  There are ten game pods linked side by side, each holding up to two players.  The kids role play robotic gladiators in a stadium, but the other robots are all their buddies!  Each station has one gladiator in the ring and they all battle each other to be the last robot standing. 

Even the littlest ones could have fun because there were dozens of built in second chances.  And Daddy to help with the steering.

This secret agent's codename was "Goofball"

Each battle station had it's own shark name, and the scores were tallied and reported at the end of the battle.

Then it was time for what they'd all been waiting for. 

First a little lesson in Lasertag 101 for the new recruits from our party chaperone, Kyle.

And then it was time to suit up!!

Each agent wore a special vest with an attached laser blaster.  The vest had receptors on the front, back and shoulders and if anyone on the opposing team hit those targets, the player who got hit would lose function in their laser and be unable to participate in the game for three seconds.

They were heavy, but no one complained for a second!

The game room was pretty intense, with music blaring and neon lights flashing.  There were multiple levels with obstacles and hiding spots.

It was nearly impossible to take pictures because it was so dark, but I'm sure you can imagine that a whole lot of fun was had!  In the end, the red team was victorious!

They also worked up some MAJOR appetites!

This secret agent indulged in his very first soda (he was beyond excited at this) and proceeded to polish off FOUR slices of pizza.  He ate more than any of the big kids.  No kidding. 

Then it was back to the arcade for a second round...

...back to the battle stations for one more gladiator battle...

...back to the game room for one last round of laser tag...

...and back to the party foom to open their manila envelopes and pose for a picture.

The boys from our neighborhood were the last to leave, and I'm pretty sure they can't wait to go back.

I wonder who's birthday is next?

Did I say tomorrow?    I meant it, really I did.  Then I got sideswiped by life for two weeks.  It was a really good reminder of why I keep things simple. 

As in, the kids take karate lessons on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  SIMPLE! 

But they really, really, REALLY wanted to take tennis lessons this summer. 

So, the kids take karate lessons on Tuesday and Thursday evenings AND tennis lessons on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  Still pretty simple.

But Jack really, really, REALLY wanted to go to karate camp. 

And it was only three days in one week, so for one week it wouldn't be so bad. 

Not so simple, but doable.

But then my neighbors were moving and they really, really, REALLY needed someone to watch their kids while the packers were there.  For three days.  Overlapping with karate camp.  And tennis lessons.

AHA!  There it was...the threshold from SIMPLE to TOTAL WACKADOO was right there in between "camp" and "packers".  And I totally ignored it.  For not one, but TWO weeks, because this week Molly had something important and special and one time only to do (it's called Safety Town and I'll try to post about it soon) but it was for 90 minutes a day, in the MIDDLE of the day, all.  week.  long.  Which meant we couldn't go home because there wasn't enough time to get back.  And yet, we had to eat lunch while she was there.  So we ate out or starved FIVE DAYS IN A ROW.

(Deep cleansing breath)  This was an incredibly good reminder of why I deliberately choose to keep it simple. 

Because the backlash is this;

• Molly has peed her pants all over town this week
• Ben has peed his pants all over town this week
• I have yelled at all my children on a daily basis
• Ben has hit/punched/kicked/spat upon anyone within his reach
• Jack is his 'worst self', which includes talking back, being rude and mean, and generally being a jerk.  Oh and crying and screaming all day long for a wide variety of equally ludicrous reasons.
• I have not slept all week
• The house is a wreck

I am all done.  DONE I TELL YOU!  Thank you universe for the reminder. 

Laser tag.  Tomorrow.  I promise.  :)

Good Grief!!

It has been one of those days.  Started off with a rainy morning of fort building - turned demolition derby and cry-fest when the big bad wolf (aka Ben) tried to knock down everyone's forts. 

They children have been whining, complaining, arguing, fussing and outright wailing about SO MUCH for SO LONG that I'll say yes to just about anything if they will just S-T-O-P!

Sure, you can play darts with the steak knives!

Toys?  I'll buy them ALL for you!

TV?  Watch as much as you want!  Watch all the shows I always say no to, to make sure you'll be up all night with nightmares and potty mouths.

Food?  Oh, just clean out the treat cabinet will you?  It's been crying for attention too.

Molly was screaming so loud at Ben earlier that she actually injured herself!  Bit her cheek mid-yell.  She simply will not listen to reason that a 3 year old is no one to argue with because the rules of logic don't apply.  Hmmm, maybe the rules of logic don't apply to six year olds either?

Ben is the worst right now - I think the 24/7 companionship of his bigger sibs is finally wearing on him.  And to add insult to injury, they are chock full of birthday money, and he gets to join the circus train to the store to help them pick out fabulous gifts while he gets bupkis.

Today was the second time in 24 hours that I've had to pry something out of his hands and pysically remove him from a store (as in, over my shoulder, kicking and screaming).

Good times.

Now that I've given the okay to beta testing of Nerf and water weaponry, the floodgates have opened and thrown up all over my house.  There are Nerf bulletts EVERYWHERE and beyond the mess, the constant battling and firepower is absolutely nauseating to me. 

Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.  A few more episodes of Tuff Puppy and hopefully the little screamers will have been lulled into a semi-conscious state of bliss.  Then I can stuff them full of something vaguely nutritious for dinner and pray that the cloudcover lets me sneak in an early bedtime.

A girl can dream, can't she?

Happy Birthday AGAIN!

It sure makes for an interesting start of summer with two back-to-back birthdays in the house.  But this year being in Naperville I was able to change things up a bit and give the kids parties they ADORED with much less effort on my part.  There are so many places out here that cater to kids parties.  They are not only BETTER than anything I could plan without herculean effort, but they are far, far CHEAPER than anything I could do on my own (again, without herculean effort). 

Today we celebrated Jack.  Molly, Ben and 12 of his buddies joined him for a morning of laser tag, arcade games, pizza and cake, and Marc and I had a total blast watching them live it up.  I think it was birthday Jack will remember for a long time to come.

I got to bed late after wrapping presents and finishing up some birthday details, only to be woken by the birthday boy at 3am.  He was clearly overwrought with the thought that his presents were right downstairs and his birthday was mere hours away.  Here's how the rest of the night went.

3:00am: "Mom?  Can I sleep with you and Dad?"
3:30am: "Mom?  Can I have a drink of water?"
4:00am: "Mom?  My stomach is killing me.  Can I have some Gas X?"
4:30am: "Mom?  I really can't sleep at ALL"
5:00am: "Mom?  It's five o'clock - can I open my presents now?"
5:30am:"Jack?  You really need to go back to your own bed because I can't sleep with your bony knees in my back"
6:00am:"Mom? The sun is up!  Can we go downstairs now?"
6:30am:"Mom? I just can't take it anymore!"
7:00am:"Mom?  PLEASE!!!! Can I open my presents now???"

At this point I would have ripped out my own eyelashes for some uninterrupted sleep, so I sent the child downstairs, without so much as a photograph of his birthday setup, and rolled over to catch some zzzs.

7:20am: "Mom?  YOU'RE THE BEST!!!  I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!"

Clearly I hit a homerun with the gifts.  It wasn't too hard, being that he's been begging for a few of them for so long it was getting to be like a broken record!

This is all I got of the birthday booty...

The big gift was his "sparring gear" for karate.  It protects him from his head to his toes so he can spar with otehr kids at his belt level.  I think he would have worn those gloves all day if he didn't already have plans!

And then it was on to the PARTY!!

This year, Jack came up with his party plan all by himself.  He wanted a James Bond spy party.

I was hoping to get away with a generic "Jack's Turning Nine!" theme, but I'm a sucker for a good theme and he roped me right in with his spy-riffic ideas. 

Of course we had to start the festivities weeks before with themed invitations.  I designed them in Photoshop and printed them as 5x7 photos at Costco.  I think they ended up costing $4 (sweet!!).  I chose the colors and size based on envelopes I already had that I wanted to use up, and I think they turned out pretty well.

I used a free font from dafont.com to make labels for the envelopes and the good ole USPS was kind enough to have matching stamps on hand!

I had all sorts of ideas for spy themed cupcakes, but nothing required the minimal effort I was willing to put in ;).  Jack loves Reeses peanut butter cups, so I went with a Betty Crocker chocolate boxed mix and homemade peanut butter frosting.  They were tasty, but might have been a tad dry on account of "someone" (and by that I mean ME!) forgetting to set the oven timer.  To spiff up the overcooked cuppies, I whipped up some cupcake toppers from the same artwork I used on the invitations.  I just printed them, punched them out, and stuck them to popsicle sticks (because that's what I had lying around in my craft stash.  You could also use lollipop sticks or toothpicks).

I got a little bling going on with some prismatic paper I picked up at Target for 99 cents.  Love me some Target!

For favors, we got each of our "Secret Agents" a pair of spy sunglasses that allow the wearer to see behind them courtesy of tiny mirrors in the corners.  We paired those with some fun squirt guns (also 99 cents, also from Target!) and tucked them inside a manila envelope marked TOP SECRET and CONFIDENTIAL.

They helped our party goers become one with their inner superspy.  Case in point, my three little superspies, posing before the party...

{Disclaimer: Do you like how I just glossed over the fact that anti-gun ME is GIVING guns away to children all over town?  It kinda goes without saying that the MALLETT FAMILY BAN ON GUNS (initiated by yours truly) has been lifted for a variety of reasons.  Age and maturity are two of them.  Also because every third grader in town has an arsenal of Nerf and water pistols/launchers/sprayers/blasters and Jack just wanted to PLAY with them, the same way Marc loved playing with his GI Joes when he was a kid.  At this point (and in similar fashion to my Barbie-Ban lift at Christmas) I feel I've properly indoctrinated them about the perils of violence and the benefits of peace and kindness.  And they still want to play target practice with each other.  Desperately.  I don't want to create kids that crave guns for the sole reason that they were denied them on principle, because in the end, guns are not violent - people are..  So for the time being, we are beta-testing a lift to the gun embargo. We will see where it goes.}

And then it was off to laser tag!

(to be continued tomorrow)

The Most Beautiful Kids in The World

Back on Memorial Day weekend Molly and Ben were playing in the backyard (Jack was riding bikes with friends).  I've made a conscious decision to try to sit down during these moments and try to read (a former favorite pastime which has been relegated to the dust heap for the last decade or so).

And I tried, really I did.

But the light was too perfect and the kids were too beautiful and even though I talked myself out of it the first few times, I finally had to listen to the voice in my head and get my camera.  They were filthy, exhausted and giggly, after a day in the pool and sun.  Molly even had ketchup on her cheek.  But still, they were the most beautiful things I'd ever laid eyes on.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love kids.  All of 'em, really.  Can't you just see all the possibilities in the world in their eyes?  All the innocence?  All the goodness in the universe?  It's present in EVERY child, I swear.  TRUE beauty that is, not the kind promoted in Hollywood.  I can see true beauty in all children: the teeny tiny ones, the big and stumbly ones, long and gangly ones, short and round ones, curly haired ones, straight haired ones, freckled ones, scarred ones, buck teethed ones, missing-teethed ones, no-teeth-at-all ones, blue eyed ones, brown eyed ones, dark ones, light ones, shy ones, loud ones....all beautiful.

But when I look at my own?  Ah, there's something magical there.  Maybe it's because we see a bit of ourselves looking back at us when we look at our own little ones.  And when I say that I mean MORE than just genetics, because I know adoptive parents who feel the same way about their kids.

It's got to be something about the LOVE we pour into them as parents that shines back at us in their smiles.

So that afternoon in the backyard, with my new 6 year old and my almost 3 and a half year old, I just couldn't resist trying to capture with my lens what my heart saw.  Do you see it?

Goodbye School, Hello POOL!!!

School was officially out on June 9th.  Here are some moments from the last week.

Disposable lunch for Field Day

From all reports

Molly was amazingly skilled at the sack race

while Jack blew the competition away with the Hula Hoop.

Ben and I stayed home and hung out with Jeffrey Kumor

so his mom could volunteer at her last field day.

Their move to Maryland is scheduled for July 27th.

Poo!

Apparently I was very nostalgic about the lunch-making.

It's the little things you know?

Molly chose her own lunchable for her last lunch in Kindergarten.

I now have a first grader.

And a fourth grader.

Pass the tissues...

Didn't want to be too "Mamarazzi" on my budding fourth grader at

his author's party and book reading.

So I used the iPhone camera.

Dissapointed in you iPhone.

This is Mrs. Sellers,

the best teacher Jack ever had.

more on that later.

It doesn't look any different from any other classroom I've seen recently

But it is different.  In all the ways that matter.

(more on that later)

Ben and I had gone in every two weeks for the entire second half of the school year to help

Jack and two other students write and publish their very own book.

This was the day Jack got to share it with his class.

I got to hold it for him.

He won (my imaginary) awards for

"Shortest Text"

and

"Most inventive illustrations substituting as text."

The title?

"Bombs Go Boom!"

The plot?

Two buddies training to be on the bomb squad are at the bomb range

and can't for the life of them figure out which bomb going off is theirs.

The dedication?

400 million "good doobie" points awarded to Jack Mallett!!!

He really is a sweetheart, that boy.  :)

Maybe I'll be able to flatter him into doing a reading for the blog!

The very next day it was time to say goodbye to Springbrook for the summer.

Remember last year when Mrs. McCarthy was our first "goodbye"?

This year's farewell was thankfully just a "see you in September" goodbye.

We thanked our driver John with some rainbow colored popcorn

and a gift certificate to Oberweis Dairy for some well-deserved ice cream.

John is a great guy.  There are days when we've been so late out the door that I just piled the kids into the minivan to drive them myself, but John would see us as he was pulling away and would come down and get the kids, even though it was out of his 'route'.

_________________________________

And then it was over! The 2010-2011 school year had come to a close.

The bus had dropped the kids off for the last time.

But this year there was not a single tinge of sadness.

There was just a mad dash for the POOL we'd joined for the summer!

Passed out COLD.

The mark of a really great time.

And a really great start of

SUMMER!!